Independent Investigative Journalism and Commentary from New Orleans, LA

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Let's take it from the top...

In the past couple of days I've received more documents about grants distributed to non-profits from the Louisiana Stadium Exposition District. Suffice to say I would love to go back and research many of these non-profits, yet I want to stay focused on NOCE - New Orleans Community Enhancement.

One of the documents I obtained was the original grant application to LSED from NOCE....it was for $150,000:

What's interesting is that NOCE's original Executive Director was not the ED who stole the money later on. And note that the original address listed for the organization was not 5437 Crowder Blvd.

That address is actually a private residence which I am assuming belonged to the original Executive Director, Patricia S. Moore:

This is an important factor, here I show you the original budget for the non-profit.

Interesting that the ONLY person they have actually tutoring kids is budgeted at $4,680 for the entire year...that consitutes what I believe would be about 2% or less of the entire non-profit budget. But the turd in the punchbowl is that they have a line item for $60,000 for office renovations. Here's a more detailed explanation:

NOTE: This was two pages and I cut and pasted the bottom part of this image, but did not altar the budget in any way.

If the property in question is on several acres of land, we know it's not the residential address listed above, so I can only assume that 60k was used to renovate 5437 Crowder. Is that even legal? Can you use this LSED grant money and non-profit funds to renovate a privately owned residence? No...you can't and it's even listed in the grant requirements:

The clear benefactor in this was Grateful Realty, the private company who owned 5437 Crowder Blvd at the time. The way I see it, they owe the LSED $60,000. I don't understand how the line item was even allowed to cut the muster (it's not mustard so don't correct me). What's also interesting is that when Rep. Cedric Richmond signed this request for the grant his address was listed as 7240 Crowder:

One year later his address was 5437 Crowder, the same as NOCE. Did any of that 60k go to renovate Rep. Richmond's office? Or better yet did the building even undergo renovations?

Another concern I have is the fact that NOCAP (New Orleans Computer Access Project) was housed in the building at the exact same time and seems to have the exact same mission statement. In the LSED Grant requirement list there is clearly a clause which states that the grant cannot be distributed to a duplicate service in the community:

They were in the same fluckin' building so I'm assuming that constitutes the same "area to be served" unless we're taking measurements by the foot. While I don't have NOCAP's information or where they received grant money from, I have already shown that the organization's President Director was Ike Spears. Well guess who was an original board member of NOCE:

Is it remotely possible that Cedric and Ike didn't have any idea that they had housed clone 501c3's in the same building? I'm also wondering if NOCAP paid for any renovations to 5437 Crowder.

Both NOCAP and NOCE were terminated around 2004. I have no idea how much money was channeled through NOCAP but I have been able to account for around 600k which was pumped through NOCE.

So this got me wondering if this whole mission statement had been reinvented in the present era. Sho' nuff I found this:

Notice it was incorporated in 2004, immediately after NOCE's demise. I'm not saying this non-profit is in violation of any laws are is not legitimate, I don't know. But it just seems like this mission statement and the moniker "community enhancment" is the idea of the decade. In light of it's predecessor, I would like to know how 2nd District Community Enhancement Corp. is being funded and which politicians are supporting it.

Also, I found this item in the LSED grant requirement list:

So I'm thinking not only does Grateful Realty need to either pony up 60k to the LSED or turn their property over to them, I think Cedric needs to turn in his Rolex or at least the diamond bevel.

While I appreciate the prose, I'm more concerned with the one who got away....the one currently on the cusp of ascension.

All of this is past the statute of limitations. As it stands now, he will ascend without answering to his transgressions. I can't even state the full spectrum of his transgressions...but I know them rest assured.

I am a zombie...I have all the time in the world. Election or not, I will haunt him until he answers.

The commenters in the previous post alluded to his treatment of "that poor girl". They are right. I can't write about that...but I also refuse to ignore it. I contacted his campaign and requested an interview. I received no response. In the meantime, I proceed with what I can prove.

WTF!!! I dont think the Nigerans are as good as these Cock Suckers!!!! This guys motto should be Keep'em Fat, Stupid and in the projects. THE Black Dems have created a voteing base claming that the white man is out to get them while robbing them blind and fucking over their kids. This is so so sad what the fuckers have done!!! God have murcey.

But maybe just maybe our AA brothers and Sisters are starting to see through all this SHIT!!!

I he (Cedric Richmond) is just trying to talk to anyone who asks, why wasn't he at the Democratic Party candidate presentations last Saturday in BR after the Zombie story broke on the 501C calamity? He snuck in after they were over and stayed a couple of minutes at a cocktail reception and hi tailed it back to Jefferson Parish where with the help of Byron Lee is trying to get Jefferson Parish votes? (he has given up in Orleans, hopefully the Jefferson voters are listening also) If he wants to splain this matter, why doesn't he just call a new conference, surely it will be well attened. People now want to know and he needs to fess up or clear up all the chatter.

Richmond is a top o the line scumbag, we all know it and his shitty Rolex proves it.The latest entity to use the Crowder property involved a person named Tiffany T Crawford, she was the president of "District 2 Community Enhancements" and was selected by Cynthia Williard Lewis, she was slapped with an ethics violation by the State for failure to pay taxes thou it seems the matter was dropped by the ethics board.But she did use the $$$ to go to New York for their "Fashion" enhancement week and dine on the free money.